Natalie Maines: Country Music ‘Burned My Ears’

Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines recently released her first rock solo album, 'Mother.' In a new interview to promote the disc, she reveals that she's more at home in that genre than she ever was in country.

Maines tells CBS Sunday Morning that her real listening tastes were always more in the vein of her new work, which features covers of Pink Floyd, Jeff Buckley and Pearl Jam among her originals. “To me, this is album is the most natural music I’ve ever made,” she says. “This is what I like, what I listen to, what I grew up singing songs like.”

As for country music? "It burned my ears," Maines adds with a laugh.

It's just as well that Maines has no immediate plans for a return to country; in 2003, at the commercial pinnacle of the Chicks' career, it all came crashing down after a comment she made on stage in London criticizing President George W. Bush for his decision to invade Iraq. The backlash all but destroyed the trio's career, though they returned in 2006 with 'Taking the Long Way,' which won five Grammy awards, including Album of the Year.

The group have performed only sporadically since then, and Maines admits she doesn't know what the future may hold for them. "I don't know what we are," she says. "Well, we're not over, but I don't know if there's new music coming."

Maines claims she doesn't miss the touring grind, however.

"You know, people ask me that so much I feel like I should," she says, pointing out that she's been perfectly happy to stay home, tend her garden and focus on being a mother. "My answer's not the right answer but, you know, I just get fulfilled by so many things. I'm just not one to pine for what I'm not doing."